年次 vs 毎年 whats the difference?

So what’s the difference between these two words they both mean annual as far as i can tell, is there a reason you should use one vs the other or are they interchangeable?

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年次 can be used to say “annually”, “school year”, or even “~years in sequence (eg. 6年次 or 6 years later)” whereas 毎年 is generally only used to mean “annually”.

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Yeah … when I use 毎年 I use it to mean “every year” … just like mainichi is “every day” … I think 毎年 is more commonly used in everyday speech than 年次 … Could be off, but those are my 2 cents.

Hope this helps…

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In a few levels you’ll get used to seeing so many apparent synonyms like level 13’s hundred ways to say “feelings” and “thoughts”.

I’m not discounting the original question which was perfectly valid. But at a certain point as you progress in WaniKani, you may find yourself shrugging your shoulders and resigning yourself to learning the nuances through reading and listening. Level 14 has so many words for hopes, wishes, wants, and desires, but then again, so does English.

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WK is not trying to teach you the nuances of words, each vocab entry would be much longer in that case :wink: The idea is that you can start reading as quickly as possible and then learn more about the vocab in context.

From my dictionary I think 年次 is more formal, like a “annual general meeting” or “annual paid leave”. 毎年 can be used in “everyday use” like @Hilaryvincent said, it is a more literal “every year” as in “I go home every year”.

“I go home annually” sounds a bit strange as well, right?

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Thanks everyone for Their responses! I see what you mean about more formal use versus casual use. There will probably be a lot more similar questions like this. Hopefully it wont be too hard to figure out the differences once i stay studying from additional sources.

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